"The first time I sat in the campus center after a really hard week, three people I barely knew just stayed with me. No one asked questions. Mac has this way of making you feel like you already belong before you've figured yourself out.

"The Pride Collective doesn't just exist for Pride month. It's in the dining hall, in my political theory class, in the friendships I've made. I've never had to explain myself here, and I didn't realize how much energy I had been spending doing that everywhere else.

"Fun at Mac looks like a Saturday frisbee game where half the players are arguing about postcolonial theory between throws. The drag show at the end of the year draws the whole campus, not just the queer students. That part matters more than people realize.

"There's a student-run coffee shop in the basement of one of the dorms. We spent an entire Sunday there once, just talking, and it felt like the best version of what college is supposed to be. Low key, genuine, no performance required.

"In my first semester I was misgendered by a professor repeatedly, after I'd introduced myself with my pronouns. A friend helped me draft an email to the professor and cc the resource center. The professor reached out the next day and apologized. The system here actually works when you know how to use it.

"There was a stretch when the resource center felt stretched too thin. Events felt rushed and the staff seemed overwhelmed. I brought it up at a student advisory meeting and found out they'd lost a staff member. Knowing the reason helped. They hired someone new by spring.